This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application 60/314,087, filed Aug. 22, 2001, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to the field of plant biotechnology. More specifically, it concerns methods and conditions for improved Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of regenerable wheat cells or tissues.
During the past decade, it has become possible to transfer genes from a wide range of organisms to crop plants by recombinant DNA technology. This advance has provided enormous opportunities to improve plant resistance to pests, disease and herbicides, and to modify biosynthetic processes to change the quality of plant products (Knutson et al., 1992; Piorer et al., 1992; Vasil et al., 1992). The lack of efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation methods suitable for high capacity production of economically important plants has limited this potential opportunity.
Initially, monocot species were transformed via microprojectile bombardment methods. Microprojectile bombardment has several disadvantages including fragmenting of the inserted DNA, insertion of multiple copies, and reduced efficiency. More recently, monocot species have been successfully transformed via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Thus, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation provides a viable alternative to microprojectile bombardment methods.
Notwithstanding the availability of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation methods in the art, there still remains a need for improved methods that permit transformation on production level scale and efficiencies. The present invention provides such an improvement of an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method. The method is more efficient in delivering target DNA to the plant and more efficient in selecting transformed plants as evidenced by higher transformation efficiencies. Moreover, the present method provides a reduction in labor and cost advantage as compared to conventional methods.